Saturday, August 13, 2016

Letting Trump Run Wild Exposes GOP’s Lack of Principles

Everything Trump did before attacking other Republican leaders was acceptable, showing that their principles boil down to politics.

Donald Trump has the GOP trapped in not one Catch-22, but two. Call it a Catch-44.

The first Catch-22 has been the subject of widespread conversation over the last few weeks. As GOP pollster Glen Bolger summed it up for the New York Times: “Do we run the risk of depressing our base by repudiating the guy? Or do we run the risk of being tarred and feathered by independents for not repudiating him?”

“We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t,” he added.

Lots of Republicans adore Trump — just consider the enthusiasm at his massive rallies — and will turn on the establishment Republicans who betray him.

But roughly one out of five Republicans do not support the nominee. College-educated married white women — a major part of the GOP demographic coalition — are abandoning him. Trump is behind by huge margins in key swing states. His standing in the national polls is flirting with the catastrophic.

It’s only early August and already Republican strategists are speculating that down-ballot candidates will have to cut and run from the nominee.